43 New Homes Coming to the Gate District Neighborhood
Date Posted: September 24, 2019
Posted In: Projects,
From St. Louis City Talk: St. Louis University (SLU) recently announced it will be working with the Gate District West Neighborhood Association to seek Request for Proposals (RFP) for builders to develop 43 vacant SLU-owned properties in the section of the neighborhood just south and east of the SLU Medical Campus.
While SLU will be closely involved in the process, the neighborhood association’s development committee will issue the RFP and select a developer or developers to acquire the properties and construct new homes on them.
The construction will fall under a community benefit agreement that the University adopted last year to promote participation from minorities and women in building projects.
Gate District West is bordered by Grand Boulevard to the west, Compton Avenue to the east, Chouteau Avenue to the north and Interstate 44 to the south. More than 80 percent of the neighborhood’s residents are African-American. The neighborhood features a mix of owner-occupied and rental housing.
— St. Louis University
What an opportunity for St. Louis, SSM and St. Louis University to improve and connect our city versus further dividing and blocking off SLU’s campus from the city. This will be our true first look into what STLMRC will bring to our city in the way of new infill home construction. This will be a harbinger of things to come, a glimpse into what they envision for 400 acres of our city.
This is huge.
Will they go the low density, suburban look and feel or will they go modern and dense? Will they go faux historic? Time will tell, but many will likely judge STLMRC on this project.
And for this, we are witnessing an exciting project that has been long overdue.
The potential of new homes and residents to shepherd us toward mixed uses in a neighborhood that could be quite walk-able and dense is exciting. The street grid south of the SLU med campus is largely intact and passable in this part of the Gate District Neighborhood.
Let’s hope the cul-de-sacs and Schoemehl pots that isolate, restrict and divide other parts of the neighborhood are not repeated here.